MindaNews/16 September-Nepal, is hit by a tremor of a magnitude beyond the Richter scale, so strong that the country’s collapse is imminent, almost a foregone conclusion. The unprecedented tremor is brought about by a youth-led anti-corruption protest that is getting out of control, careening the landlocked country towards anarchy.
The so-called Gen Z protest was accordingly triggered by the government’s heavy-handed restriction of social media, which snowballed into a political protest.
The raging protest has already claimed 30 lives, and casualties are still rising, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and leaving government buildings in flames across the capital and beyond.
The Gen Z protesters had stormed and torched parliament, the Supreme Court, and many other government offices, including the central administrative complex, Singha Durbar. Homes of political leaders past and present were attacked and set on fire. The residence of a former prime minister was torched, with his wife trapped inside. She was rescued, but suffered from burns.
The police stations were overrun. Media outlets and schools were also torched, and the Ministry of Health and Population and the National Health Emergency Operation Centre were destroyed.
The protest shows no end goal. Once it’s burnt out, it creates a vacuum, leaving the country vulnerable to foreign pretenders, and may yet follow the unfortunate plight of neighboring Tibet.
Unless the military interferes and takes control, the rooftop of the world may crumble and disappear from the map anytime soon.
What is consuming Nepal is like a raging bushfire that conflagrates and sparks a mega protest in Indonesia over the choking poverty of the people against the ostentatious display of the wealth of the ruling class. The huge income disparity and the corruption that bedeviled those in power have also provoked the Gen Z anti-corruption protest in Indonesia. Angry protesters in several cities set fire to regional parliament buildings, police headquarters, and damaged infrastructure in the unrest that included looting and the burning of vehicles. It is feared that the country may explode anytime, like the legendary Krakatoa off the shores of Java, if the volatile situation is not controlled.
Not far away, protesters organized by students also swamped the streets of Manila in response to the disgusting mega corruption in government flood control projects all over the country. These projects, instead of controlling the flood, are now drowning the country in bottomless corruption. Hence, those responsible for scamming the Filipino in billions of pesos, perpetuated by the clique of unconscionable lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate of the Philippines, officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, and private contractors, ought to be charged and prosecuted for plunder.
The anti-plunder law mandates that those accused shall be detained at once without bail privilege and shall remain in detention until otherwise proven innocent.
Although widespread and worldwide in occurrence, corruption is endemic. Each country is left to its own devices to stamp it out. The Nepalese nonchalantly torch national government buildings and mansions of corrupt government officials. Indonesia appears to have two options: a sudden death by hanging or the firing squad. The Philippines, the only Christian country in Asia, imposes the cruelest penalty for anyone who plunders the nation’s wealth. The penalty amounts to an extended torture. The convict is isolated from society and has to stay in jail for eternity.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)